1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical communication connector suitable for use in an optical communication device for bidirectionally transmitting a signal between a plurality of devices such as personal computers, AV devices, etc. by means of optical fibers as in the case where, for example, an in-house network is constructed.
2. Description of the Related Art
As optical fibers employed in an optical communication device, there are known one (hereinafter called "silica fiber") having a core whose material is Sio.sub.2 and one (hereinafter called "plastic fiber") having a core whose material is plastic. The former silica fiber has the advantage of less transfer losses as compared with the plastic fiber. On the other hand, since the core is small in diameter, a high-accuracy optical-axis alignment is required when silica fibers are optically-coupled to each other, whereby an optical connector becomes so expensive. In contrast to this, the latter plastic fiber has an advantage in that as compared with the silica fiber, an inexpensive optical connector (e.g., plastic molded product) can be used because it is large in core diameter but on the other hand, it has a drawback in that transfer losses are greatly produced and a transfer distance is about several tens of meters at the very outside.
Owing to such reasons, a communication system in which a transfer distance is relatively short as in the in-house network and many connectors are required, uses plastic fibers heavily. However, when light is transmitted over a distance exceeding a transferable distance of one plastic fiber, the light emitted from an end surface of one plastic fiber is photoelectrically transferred into an electric signal by a light-receiving device. Further, the resultant electric signal is amplified and converted to a light signal again by a light-emitting device, after which it is launched into an end surface of the other plastic fiber, whereby relays are made between a plurality of plastic fibers.
However, such a conventional optical communication device has a problem in that when the light signal is transmitted over the distance exceeding the transferable distance of one plastic fiber, the light signal is photoelectrically converted into the electric signal and the resultant electric signal is amplified and converted to the light signal again, so that the light-receiving device, amplifier and light-emitting device are required every transferable distances of respective one plastic fibers, thus increasing the entire communication system in cost and complexity.